I’ve already written a post on reports of what happened at the Occupy Oakland General Strike, as well as vandalism there and the protesters’ response to the fringe vandals. But, the question I think those of us supportive of the movement should ask is not just “what happened?” but also “was this strike a success?”
Well, I think we have to first determine what would constitute a success. In my opinion, it would be:
- Good media coverage of the event bringing the message of the Occupy Wall Street movement to more people.
- Protesters looking like civilized, organized, peaceful members of the general public.
- People not getting hurt or killed.
- More people joining the OWS movement, and the creation of more political pressure to update our political and financial systems.
So, did Occupy Oakland achieve these goals? I think so.
- There has been probably better coverage of this single event (the Occupy Oakland General Strike) than anything else so far. I’ve seen featured reports on nearly every major media outlet. This is the first time I think I’ve seen an OWS event at the top of Google News. The reports have favored the protesters, as far as I’ve seen, and partly because of the peaceful, organized nature of the protest and the fact that so many people, middle class people the world can related to, participated.
- There was little vandalism or violence, the larger mass of protesters denounced it and kept it from getting out of hand, and the mainstream media reported on that.
- One driver of a Mercedes ran into a couple protesters after running a red light, but it’s not clear yet if it was intentional or not. Not the worst that could have happened from up to 7,000 people marching on the streets of Oakland and shutting down the country’s 5th-busiest port.
- I think the widespread coverage, primarily positive coverage, peaceful nature of the day, and decent explanation of the issues will bring more people into the movement, or at least plant the first seed in their minds.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the Occupy Oakland general Strike was a success or not?
Photo Credit: Oakland Local
As shown in this article, the Congressional Budget Office found that banking industry executives, managers, supervisors and financial professionals accounted for 60 percent of the increase in income accruing to the top 1 percent in America between 1979 and 2005:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/10/income-inequality-in-america-1-percent.html
Apparently, too much is never enough of a good thing for the top of the income heap in the United States.
Thanks for the note. Yes, how insecure must they feel.. or how greedy.. to constantly need more!